"The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way"

Robert Kiyosaki, American Author (1947 – )

Milly woke a short time later, the early afternoon sun shaded by wispy clouds drifting across a gorgeous blue sky. A flock of starlings glided over her on the breeze and landed in a grass thicket a short distance away.

Her head ached and her mouth was dry. Her legs prickled from kneeling in place for so long. The prairie heat had dried the vomit on her hoodie, except where it was still soaked with sweat.

The stench of the dead goblin hung over the clearing like a blanket – a reminder of how close she’d come to dying.

Her eyes ached, and she resisted opening them for fear of what she’d see when she did. She reached blindly for Xavier, but all she felt was bare earth.

“Xavier?” she mumbled, still half-asleep.

H-he should be here. What happened to him?

Alarm drove away her exhaustion.

“Xavier? Xavier!” she called frantically, terrible scenarios dancing across her mind.

“I’m over here. Keep your voice down,” Xavier said softly, his tone gruff and impatient, but very much alive.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, relieved.

“…I’m fine.”

Milly rose to her feet with a soft grunt, her knees weak and shaking. Her muscles ached, and she felt an emptiness inside her that hadn’t been there an hour ago.

She focused on the pool of magic energy next to her heart.

It’s like having a new organ inside of me. It feels so odd, yet almost…natural. As if my eyes have been opened to something that had always been there.

She reached deeper, sensing the magic contained within.

I completely drained my magic when I healed Xavier. It caused me to collapse. I got lucky this time, but I need to be more careful. If I drain my magic like that again at the wrong time, I’ll be left defenseless.

Xavier was crouched over the goblin’s body, its spear clutched in his hand. He was running his fingers through the goblin’s mangy, blood-soaked hair, which made Milly gag.

She stumbled over to the goblin’s body, her legs prickling as they recovered. Her war hammer lay a few feet away, and she lifted the handle just high enough to allow her to touch it to her inventory screen. It vanished and became an icon in her inventory once more.

“I wish I had that feature back home,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. “It’d be perfect for weekend dumpster diving.”

She knelt next to her friend, but he didn’t look up.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. The stench was strongest here, and she could see the goblin’s smashed-in head out of the corner of her eye.

I thought I would feel guilty…but I don’t. Xavier’s right. It was either it or us. But that doesn’t mean I want to look at it. What the hell is Xavier doing?

“Xavier?” Milly asked again, absentmindedly picking off ticks that had attached themselves to her while she was unconscious. Unlike before, she didn’t cringe from the effort.

How bad can a tick really be when there are monsters out here trying to kill us?

“Xavier?” she prompted, more insistently, as he finished searching the goblin’s hair and came up empty.

“I’m fine. Why do you keep asking?” Xavier finally answered, his answer biting.

His shirt was caked in blood, but the only indication that he’d been injured was the small scratch on his forehead where the rock had struck.

“Let me see it,” she said, leaning in to inspect the result of her healing.

Xavier slapped her hand away. “I said I’m fine. Can you just leave me alone?” he snarled.

He threw his hands up in frustration , abandoning the corpse. He held the goblin’s spear in his hands and, with a quick look to Milly, stashed it in his own inventory.

Milly was taken aback. “Leave…leave you alone?”

“Yeah, you did more harm than good. This injury—it’s your fault.”

She stared at him, mouth agape.

“Wh-what?” she asked, utterly confused.

“You said the rock was on its right side,” he grumbled, giving the goblin’s corpse a sharp kick. It squelched, renewing the foul odor in the air.

“Yeah? And?”

“It was on his left side,” he spat, as if accusing her of a crime. “My plan of attack was built on it being on the right. I wouldn’t have been hurt if you’d given me accurate information.”

Milly's blood boiled in an instant.

“You…you ungrateful, condescending, arrogant piece of shit!” she shouted at him angrily, rising to her feet.

His expression went from angry to shocked in a heartbeat.

“That wasn’t the fucking problem! You didn’t wait for me. ‘It’s just a goblin, Milly. I can kill it with my bare hands.’ You ran in there all by yourself, arrogant as always, and you fucked up! And you want to make that my fault?”

He tried to jump in to defend himself, but Milly shut him down in an instant.

“No, shut up. I almost died fighting that thing!” she shouted. She put her hand through the hole in her hoodie and wiggled her fingers. “I was an inch away from being goblin food. But I did it. Me—all alone. Because some asshole decided he knew better because he plays stupid video games.”

“I…well, when you put it that way…”

“And as if that wasn’t enough,” she ranted, ignoring the man. “I had to figure out this talent nonsense—all by myself. I healed you, Xavier. With magic! I tried so hard that I passed out from the effort! And all you have to say to me is ‘it was on the left?’”

Her breath was heavy with righteous anger that broke through her layers of self-doubt and passiveness like a hammer shattering glass.

“Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare try to paint me with your failure. You’d be dead right now—getting your skin peeled off by that creature—if it wasn’t for me. I saved your life!”

Milly finished, her face red and limbs shaking with adrenaline. She stomped away from the man, headed for the river so she could wash the vomit off her hoodie.

“Fucking, arrogant asshole,” she muttered to herself as she stripped off the hoodie and dunked it in the river. She sat there in her ratty black bra, savoring the breeze. She splashed her chest with water, and the cool sting against her bare skin helped calm her down.

She wiggled her fingers through her hoodie’s new hole.

Where does someone get a needle and thread in a place like this? Maybe Calista has something I can borrow.

Milly scoffed at the notion.

Listen to yourself, Milly. You’re thinking of asking Calista for help. You must be desperate.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Xavier said softly from behind her, his words borderline apologetic.

He sat down next to her, keeping his eyes on the river. Milly didn’t bother to cover herself up.

He picked up a stone and hurled it into the water. It landed with a soft plunk and the ripples were carried away on the current.

“This world was supposed to be my dream come true. That goblin… it was weak. Early game fodder for players to practice on. They are a joke…just a joke…”

She was about to launch into another angry tirade—a lecture on life not being a video game—when she saw the tears streaming down his face.

Is Xavier…crying?

“A joke, Milly. I’m fast. I’m strong. I play video games better than anyone. And the moment any of that mattered, I lasted two seconds. Two seconds! I would have died if you hadn’t been here.”

He placed his head between his knees, collapsing in on himself.

“This is my dream world, and it turns out I am as useless here as I am in real life.”

Milly’s anger broke like a wave crashing against the shore. She leaned over and pulled Xavier into a tight hug.

He’s a total jerk. But maybe he’s just as scared as I am right now.

His arms went around her, and he buried his face in her shoulder. She held him like that until he’d cried all the tears he needed to shed.

“You’re not useless, Xavier,” she said once he’d stopped shaking. “You are a jerk with the interpersonal skills of a lima bean, but you aren’t useless. You were just unlucky.”

He leaned back, wiping away the last of his tears. “You know, in some games, luck is a player stat that can be manipulated for some eye-raising advantages. Critical hits, better loot, and lots more. Tutoria says it’s not a stat open to manipulation in this game, which, reading between the lines, must mean it’s a stat somewhere in their system. I think I can find a way around…”

He paused his rant as Milly frowned at him.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I guess I just get carried away about stuff no one cares about.”

“It’s okay,” she assured him. “I never minded your rants. I never understood them, but it was always part of who you are. Besides, I guess your rants have more relevance today than they did yesterday.”

He smiled, and the tension between them melted away. “Yeah, I guess they do.”

“So…what were you doing with that…goblin?” she asked tentatively.

“Looting it,” he answered, then elaborated when he saw her confused expression. “Searching its body for useful items. Weapons, armor, trinkets, and the like. Body parts, like teeth, hair, or fingernails, can be used for crafting or alchemy in some games. Not sure if that’s the case here though. I’ll ask Tutoria when we get back.”

“Eww, that’s disgusting, Xavier. Please don’t dismantle bodies when I’m around.”

“It’s not high on my to-do list either,” he admitted. “I’d rather not walk around with an inventory full of body parts. It’s so much more…um…visceral in real life.”

“Well, just so you know, we get rewards automatically. I got a message after I…protected myself from the goblin. It said I earned five gold and received a ‘soiled goblin loincloth’. They both got added to my inventory.”

“Auto looting,” he said appreciatively. “That’s so much better than the alternative. Gold is this world’s currency, by the way. Pretty standard stuff. No way to spend it yet. Now, let me see that loincloth.”

“I really, really don’t want to take the loincloth out of my inventory.”

“Come on, it could be important. Let me see it,” he said excitedly. “It’s our first loot. It could be magical!”

She sighed as she opened her inventory and, with two very reluctant fingers, grasped the icon for the loincloth and drew it out.

The stench was horrendous. Milly dropped the loincloth to the ground and backed away quickly, as both of them struggled not to gag.

Xavier grabbed a nearby stick and lifted the loincloth gently. He focused and a small screen appeared next to it.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Item: Soiled Goblin Loincloth

“Do you want it back?” he asked.

“Gross! Keep that thing away from me,” Milly protested.

He playfully waved the stick in her direction, and she almost vomited. With a laugh, he shoved it into his inventory.

“You're actually keeping it?”

“You never know when it might come in handy.”

“Let me guess. Hoarding is a useful skill in these games.”

“Absolutely,” he declared. “Time honored tradition.”

“So…what do we do now?” she asked, eyeing up the four towers of the Castle of Glass in the distance.

“Well, we really have two choices. Head back to the office, where we will remain weak and likely die a horrible death. Or we choke back our fear, press onwards, and likely die a horrible death.”

Milly laughed despite herself. It was an absurd choice, but Xavier had a black and white outlook that helped keep her fear at bay.

“Shouldn’t we go back and help everyone? They don’t know what’s going on.”

“And we do?” he countered. “I mean, I know video games, but it’s not like I have a cheat sheet for this world. I’m just following the usual tropes. Plus, everyone at the Castle has their own Tutoria with the same information, so they can figure it out themselves.”

“I…guess so,” she said uncertainly.

“Look, we need to watch out for ourselves. Right now, all we know if we have to survive. But eventually we—or someone at the Castle—will peel back this onion and figure out what’s actually going on. The moment that happens, shit’s going to get real. We need to be strong when that day comes, with some solid equipment to help out.”

“What, like your new loincloth?” Milly teased, and Xavier barked out a laugh. “So we just carry on?”

“Pretty much,” he confirmed. "Keep calm and carry on."

“Well…” she finished, throwing on her damp hoodie. “I don’t really want to go back to work, do you?”

“Hell no. Whatever we find, it’ll be better than all that paperwork.”

They strode into the tall grass, their first fight behind them…

And Milly felt a tiny seed of confidence begin to grow inside her.

I don’t know what I’m doing, but I survived the morning.

And that’s not a bad start.

The Non-Canonical Aftermath:

Mr. Fredrickson slams down a mountain of paperwork on his desk.

“Alright, Zachary,” he starts, opening a red folder filled with paper. “You were technically injured at work, so I need you to fill out these workplace injury forms.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Xavier says, narrowing his eyes at the thick stack of forms.

“It’s corporate policy,” explains Frank. “This one is for our insurance. This one is for the government. And this one is a waiver of liability in favor of Acicentre. I’m going to need that last one signed in triplicate…”